The present invention relates to an innerspring assembly with edge reinforcement.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Innerspring assemblies are widely used, primarily for manufacture of mattresses or upholstered furniture. To achieve edge stability, especially when the upholstery or the mattress is used as seat, it has been proposed to provide the innerspring assembly on the topside and bottom side with an edge reinforcement made of round or flat material, such as metal. An example of an innerspring assembly of this type is described in German patent document DE 16 54 319 A1. This type of innerspring assembly suffers shortcomings because it cannot be rolled up or unrolled. This capability is however important to complete the end product, such as mattress or upholstery, as in most cases the innerspring assembly has to be transported from the manufacturing site to the mattress fabrication site, whereby the production site for the end product and the manufacturing site for the innerspring assembly are typically far apart in distance.
By nature, innerspring assemblies are very voluminous while their weight is small, rendering the transport costs of innersprings very high. To reduce costs, it has been suggested to make the edge reinforcement of sheet metal strips so that the innerspring assembly can be rolled up for transport. Providing the innerspring assembly with such a metal frame is however very labor-intensive and costly so that any saving in transport is negated by the increase in labor and costs. This is problematic, considering that innersprings are produced on a large scale.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved innerspring assembly which obviates prior art shortcomings and which is easy and cost-effectively to produce while yet allowing easy transport.